Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name.

Early life

Hines was born in

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, the son of a former Confederate soldier. His mother died when he was four, and he was raised by his grandmother. Hines attended Bowling Green Business University, which later merged with what is now

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

, and worked in the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

for

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

and other companies before settling in Chicago.

Writing career

Hines worked as a traveling salesman for a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

printer, and he had eaten many meals on the road across the United States by 1935 when he was 55. At this time, there was no American

interstate highway system The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

and only a few

chain restaurant A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

s, except in large populated areas. Therefore, travelers depended on local restaurants. Hines and his wife Florence began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country. The book proved so successful that Hines added another which recommended lodging. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hines wrote the newspaper food

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

''Adventures in Good Eating at Home'', which appeared in newspapers across the US three times a week on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The column featured restaurant recipes adapted for home cooks that he had collected during his nationwide travels.

Entrepreneurial career

In 1952, Duncan Hines introduced Duncan Hines bread through the Durkee's Bakery Company of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Principals Michael C. Antil Sr., Albert Durkee, and Lena Durkee were the bakery proprietors. This was Duncan Hines' first foray into baked goods. By 1953, Hines sold the right to use his name and the title of his book to

Roy H. Park Roy Hampton Park (15 September 1910 – 25 October 1993) was an American media executive and entrepreneur. He is known for creating the Duncan Hines brand of packaged food products, and for his television/radio/newspaper conglomerate, Park Commun ...

to form Hines-Park Foods, which licensed the name to a number of food-related businesses.About Us
Duncan Hines websiteDuncan Hines, The Man Behind The Cake Mix
visitbgky.com The cake mix license was sold to Nebraska Consolidated Mills in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

, which developed and sold the first Duncan Hines cake mixes. In 1957, Nebraska Consolidated Mills sold the cake mix business to the U.S. consumer products company

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

. The company expanded the business to the national market and added a series of related products. Also in 1957, Hines appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show '' To Tell the Truth''. Hines died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...

in 1959, 11 days short of what would have been his 79th birthday. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the same series of Hines family plots as

Thomas Hines Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Today

The Duncan Hines brand is now owned by

Conagra Brands Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...

, the current name for Nebraska Consolidated Mills, which was the original owner of the brand. Conagra reacquired the brand through its acquisition, in 2018, of

Pinnacle Foods Pinnacle Foods, Inc., is a packaged foods company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, that specializes in shelf-stable and frozen foods. The company became a subsidiary of Conagra Brands on October 26, 2018. History The company was fou ...

which bought it from

in 1997. Hines is widely honored in his hometown of Bowling Green, and a portion of

U.S. Route 31W U.S. Route 31W (US 31W) is the westernmost of two parallel routes for U.S. Route 31 from Nashville, Tennessee to Louisville, Kentucky. At one time, it split with U.S. Route 31E at Sellersburg, Indiana, crossing into nearby Louisville via the Ken ...

north of the city was named the Duncan Hines Highway after his death. A museum exhibit at Western Kentucky University's Kentucky Museum in Bowling Green showcases Duncan Hines.Museum Exhibit
/ref>

Publications

* * * * * *Hines, Duncan (1955). ''Duncan Hines' Food Odyssey.'' Thomas Y. Crowell Company. *

Notes and references

External links

*
Duncan Hines brand website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hines, Duncan 1880 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American columnists American food writers American male non-fiction writers Former Procter & Gamble brands Writers from Bowling Green, Kentucky Pinnacle Foods brands Western Kentucky University alumni Food product brands Deaths from lung cancer in Kentucky